Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Disasters in the First World -- a cli-fi book by Olivia Clare

  1. My book of stories is featured in Book Riot's article on Cli-Fi (Climate Fiction). Thank you for including me here !
  2. Check out Craig Dionne and Lowell Duckert's collection on "Shakespeare in the Anthropocene" (topics ranging from Shakes to Cli-Fi, and beyond), now live and open-access:
What is Cli-Fi? offers a Beginner's Guide to Climate Fiction And among the best books in the genre?

Disasters in the First World -- a cli-fi book by Olivia Clare



Monday, May 28, 2018

關於「orwellian nonsense」的報導圖片 (來源:立場新聞) 中共如何被吊打— 從「歐威爾式胡言亂語(Orwellian Nonsense) 」說起 立場新聞-2018年5月7日 日前美國白宮公開直斥中共把其“Orwellian Nonsense”(歐威爾式胡言亂語)強加於美國企業和公民,這措辭之強硬是前所未有的,那根本是公開吊打 ... 美批中「歐威爾式胡言亂語」 典故引自名著「1984」 世界日報-2018年5月5日 中國被批歐威爾式胡言亂語——那你知道歐威爾的意涵嗎? TechOrange (新聞發布) (網誌)-2018年5月9日 中國施壓航空業者更改台灣稱呼白宮重批:歐威爾式的胡鬧 Yahoo奇摩新聞 (新聞發布)-2018年5月5日 美批中「歐威爾式胡鬧」 起源英國名著《一九八四》! ETtoday-2018年5月5日 極權主義代名詞歐威爾式廣為使用 深入報導-自由時報電子報-2018年5月6日 關於「orwellian nonsense」的媒體圖片 (來源:自由時報電子報) 自由時報電子報 關於「orwellian nonsense」的媒體圖片 (來源:TechOrange (新聞發布) (網誌)) TechOrange (新聞發布) (網誌) 關於「orwellian nonsense」的媒體圖片 (來源:Yahoo奇摩新聞 (新聞發布)) Yahoo奇摩新聞 (新聞發布) 關於「orwellian nonsense」的媒體圖片 (來源:ETtoday) ETtoday 關於「orwellian nonsense」的媒體圖片 (來源:新頭殼) 新頭殼

關於「orwellian nonsense」的報導圖片 (來源:立場新聞)

UPDATE: July 8 -- and NOW TOR the sci fi firm in NYC

 

responds to me online "You have 


been blocked from Tor user 


registration.'' 


So Orwellian nonsense it is!







中共如何被吊打— 從「歐威爾式胡言亂語(Orwellian Nonsense) 」說起

立場新聞-2018年5月7日
中國被批歐威爾式胡言亂語——那你知道歐威爾的意涵嗎?
TechOrange (新聞發布) (網誌)-2018年5月9日
國施壓航空業者更改台灣稱呼白宮重批:歐威爾式的胡鬧
Yahoo奇摩新聞 (新聞發布)-2018年5月5日
極權主義代名詞歐威爾式廣為使用
深入報導-自由時報電子報-2018年5月6日


[ LETTER ] - Taipei Times




關於「orwellian nonsense」的媒體圖片 (來源:自由時報電子報)

[ LETTER ]

Appeal to SCifi Tor Books to stop kowtowing to Red China Orwellian nonsense
As readers who follow the news know, last month China sent a threatening letter to a large number of international airlines demanding that they change the country code for Taiwan (TW) on their schedules to China (CN), as dictated by Beijing’s “one China” principle.
However, standing up for Taiwan’s international space and presence, on May 5 US President Donald Trump’s administration issued a statement condemning China’s science fictional “demand” as “Orwellian nonsense” through which China was trying to impose its own political claims on private companies around the world.
It’s like the British novels Nighteen Eighty-four and Animal Farm have come to life in 2018.
Believe it or not, a major sci-fi publishing company in New York, the most prestigious science fiction publisher in the world, Tor Books, whose editors know all about the Nighteen Eighty-four and Animal Farm, also kowtows to Beijing’s “one China” nonsense by asking Taiwanese sci-fi fans who want to sign up at the Tor Web site (tor.com/register) to list their country on the site’s drop-down menu as either “China” or “Taiwan, province of China.”
Yes, the world-famous sci-fi Web site run by Tor Books does not allow Taiwanese sci-fi fans to list their country as “Taiwan.”
Yet as readers know, Taiwan is a free and independent democracy, which abides by international law and has never been a part of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The Chinese claim that Taiwan is part of the PRC is a silly nationalistic sci-fi illusion, with no basis in international law.
By forcing Taiwanese sci-fi fans to register on the Web site as being from either “China” or “Taiwan, province of China,” Tor’s editors and Web site managers are showing a terrible and naive bias to Taiwanese fans.
Tor’s editors are probably not even aware of this oversight on their registration form, thus this letter, and hopefully a change in the Web site’s current Orwellian nonsense.
I hope that Tor Books, once its editors read this letter, will do the right thing and stand up for Taiwan on its online registration form and show science fiction fans around the world that US sci-fi Web sites do not kowtow to China.
Signed, George Orwell
Taipei

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ETtoday
關於「orwellian nonsense」的媒體圖片 (來源:新頭殼)
新頭殼


Sunday, May 27, 2018

It's called cli-fi and it might be another way to help save the planet, says Amy Brady at Ozy.com -- [Four cli-fi novels worth exploring]

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE

It’s called cli-fi and it might be another way to help save the planet. 
Amy Brady writes: Scientists have been trying to warn us about climate change’s most devastating effects for decades. Now fiction writers are helping their cause, crafting stories that help readers imagine glacier melt, sea level rise and other climate-related scenarios.
It's called cli-fi and it might be another way to help save the planet, says Amy Brady at Ozy.com -- [Four cli-fi novels worth exploring]
Often called climate fiction, or cli-fi, the genre “helps writers overcome some of the most profound communication challenges” that the phenomenon presents, says Elizabeth Rush, visiting lecturer at Brown University. Why? Because climate change is “slow-moving and intensely place-based,” it can be difficult to notice in our day-to-day lives, she explains — and with climate fiction, “you can do just that. You can imagine being a person whom flood ordrought displaces, and with that imaginative stance can come radical empathy.”
Check out these thought-provoking cli-fi reads from around the world about:  1, a futuristic Finland where water is scarce, 2, a German scientist distraught over disappearing glaciers, 3. a UK teenager living in a carbon-rationed England and 4. a climate-conscious biologist exploring a string of islands off the coast of India.

MEMORY OF WATER BY EMMI ITÄRANTA

Set in the near future in Scandinavia, this novel, Itäranta’s first, is speculative fiction at its best. Climate change has ravaged the planet, and in its wake, China has come to rule Europe, and wars are waged over precious resources like water. Amid all this, 17-year-old Noria Kaitio strives to be a “tea master” like her father and, in doing so, has learned of a secret water source. When her father dies, the national army begins watching her closely, and she must decide whether to keep her secret and risk her safety or tell it and risk betraying those closest to her. The novel is even more remarkable because Itäranta wrote two versions, one in Finnish and one in English, simultaneously.

THE LAMENTATIONS OF ZENO BY ILIJA TROJANOW; ABLY TRANSLATED BY PHILIP BOEHM

This literary work of cli-fi  from Bulgarian-German writer Trojanow was written in a modernist style that captures the fragmented thoughts of the protagonist, Zeno Hintermeier, in streams of consciousness. The original title in German was ''EISTAU'', ('Melting Ice'). Greatly disturbed by the world’s rapidly declining glaciers, Hintermeier, a German scientist, embarks on a plan to convince the world to pay more attention to how humanity is destroying the planet. This plan comes at a time of personal trouble for Zeno: Just as his marriage is falling apart, he’s questioning how to keep his work relevant in a world that seems completely oblivious to global warming. The comic-tragic book is often despairing, but even its saddest parts are rendered in lovely, lyrical prose.

THE CARBON DIARIES 2015 BY SACI LLOYD

Written in 2012, this young adult novel imagines an England in 2015 so deeply damaged by climate change that carbon rationing has begun. It stars 16-year-old Laura, who spends her days going to school and playing in a punk band. But her anxiety is growing over her parents’ pending divorce and an approaching hurricane that scientists predict will be the strongest ever to hit England. The novel is structured as the diary she keeps to make sense of her world as it grows more chaotic. Such a structure might turn some adults off, but Lloyd’s keen attention paid to real human emotion — in teenagers and adults — makes the book relatable for almost anyone.

THE HUNGRY TIDE BY AMITAV GHOSH

Written by the American (Brooklyn-based) author of The Great Derangement, a work of nonfiction that addressed the world’s need for more cli-fi novels, this ambitious  cli-fi novel combines lyricism with fast-paced action. Set on an archipelago of tiny islands located just off the coast of India, the novel follows Piya Roy, an American marine biologist of Indian descent, who’s thrown from a boat into water teeming with crocodiles. She’s saved by a local fisherman, with whom she learns to engage with the help of a translator. As the trio ventures deeper into the islands’ wilderness, they learn not only of the dangers of the encroaching tide — but also of the political turmoil that wreaks havoc on the islands’ people and land.